Metro-North Train Bombed Into 30 MPH Limit Curve Going 82 MPH

The National Transportation Safety Board announced Monday afternoon that the Metro-North train that crashed in the Bronx on Sunday was traveling at 82 miles per hour into a curve that should approached at a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour.

NTSB member Earl Weener shared the information gleaned from the trains two event recorders. The preliminary download of information also showed the train's throttle was engaged until six seconds before the crash; the brakes were engaged only five seconds before the accident.

It was too early, Weener said, to determine whether the brakes were engaged before the train leapt the tracks. The train made 9 stops before derailing, Weener added, suggesting the brakes were in working conditions earlier in the trip.

The train operator, William Rockefeller, has undergone both drug and alcohol testing, but the NTSB has yet to obtain the results of those tests. Rockefeller has also turned over his cell phone for forensic testing, Weener said.

It is still too early, the NTSB maintains, to determine is human error played a role in the crash.